Earl Hayden, father of a family of racers that included 2006 MotoGP World Champion Nicky Hayden, and one of the most popular personalities in racing paddocks across the world, passed away Wednesday. He’d been battling cancer. He was 74.
Earl and his wife Rose both raced motorcycles when they were young and then as a couple taught their five children, Tommy, Jenny, Nicky, Roger, and Kathleen, to ride and shortly after all began racing at young ages. The three boys Tommy, Nicky and Roger Lee, all became factory racers, each winning national road racing championships. Nicky went on to become the most accomplished of the Hayden boys, going to win the MotoGP World Champion in 2006.
Raising the kids on a horse ranch on the outskirts of Owensboro, Kentucky, Earl built tracks on the property for them to train on and under his watchful eye helped nurture their racing aspirations.
“The Haydens grew up admiring the champions of flat track racing and Earl did everything he could to help them reach their goal of following in the footsteps of those champions,” said Chris Jonnum, author of the book The Haydens: From OWB to MotoGP. “The kids all really loved racing, and Earl was great at helping them get through the times when things got tough and found a way to keep them enthused and moving ahead to the next level.”
Perhaps the proudest moment for Earl and the entire family came in 2002 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds Rodeo Arena, where Nicky, Tommy and Roger finished one-two-three in the AMA Grand National Short Track event. It marked the first time in AMA racing history that three family members filled the podium at an AMA Grand National event.
When Nicky scored his first MotoGP victory at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California, in 2005, Earl was there to greet his son with a big hug, the emotional moment captured by TV cameras and those images flashed across the globe.
Tragically, Nicky passed away in May of 2017, after being hit by a car while he was training on a bicycle in Italy.
“I’d like to think Earl and Nicky are now reunited, and Earl is standing on the pit wall timing Nicky,” Jonnum said. “There was nobody quite like Earl Hayden and he made so many friends wherever he went. It seemed like you always walked away after talking with him with a smile on your face.”
We will pass on more information as we receive it.
